Eye-Tracking & Your Second Screen—Just What Are You Looking At?

Second screens are radically changing the television viewing
experience. But just exactly where is your eye spending its time between the
two screens?

Eye-tracking is the science of charting the eye’s movement
in order to see just where people are looking. In this case, when they watch
television.

A groundbreaking study, conducted by Michael Holmes and Ryan
Carney of Ball State University & Sheree Josephson of Weber State
University, used eye-tracking to meter the attention of viewers while watching
television in conjunction with a second screen app
on a mobile tablet.

Test participants were shown two differing genres of
programming: drama (one of two episodes of
Grey’s Anatomy) and documentary (one of two
episodes of From The Edge With Peter Lik) during the study. Each of these programs had an official
synchronized second-screen app; that is, content and interactive opportunities
appeared on the tablet app when triggered by hidden audio cues in the program
soundtracks.

Here are some of the general findings:

Second screens got nearly a third of visual attention.Although the television screen delivering program content was the primary
focus, second screens received 30% of total visual attention.

Considerable “gaze time” spent on second screen—even unprompted.The uninterrupted viewing of points within a single screen was defined as “gaze time.” This indicates a focus
of visual attention on a particular screen.

In other words, viewing that is not random, unfocused, or
offscreen—which tends to suggests a desire to view a particular screen without
interruption.

The study shows that even without prompting from a secondary
source like “pushes” from the television content to interact with second screen
apps—or ad breaks which redirect attention to the tablet—the second screen
garnered a significant portion of total gaze time.

“Pushed” content & advertising increased second
screen attention.In those instances when viewers were stimulated by the television screen to
interact with a second screen app—or presented with an advertising
component—second screens garnered even more attention.

This news is advantageous to content developers wanting to maximize attention
during “push” content prompting or during advertising components. As they know
the focus of attention is likely to shift during these events, second screen
content can be timed to take advantage of the additional focus.

Second screen presence significantly decreases average
gaze length.Even though the television gets the majority of TOTAL time being watched,
the average duration of a gaze on the
television screen is significantly decreased by the introduction of a second
screen.

Also, the average gaze durations
of television (1.9 seconds) and second screens (1.2 seconds) may indicate
that the second screen requires more active or intentional monitoring while the
television does not require such an active focus.

In practical terms, watching television is not as directed
in intent as checking a second screen for specific information, surfing the
web, or any number of other second screen activities.

So, the addition of a second screen isn’t creating an
additional long gaze time. Instead, it seems to be the catalyst for a more
vigorous, less static viewing experience.

Historically, TV watching included some extended gazes on the screen, up to 20
or 30 seconds; these were absent in the study as participants rapidly shifted
their attention between the screens.

Genre of content did not affect gaze patterns.The type of content shown did not affect gaze patterns in any significant
regard. Eye-tracking revealed that, regardless of content, visual attention to
the second screen remained consistent across
differing content.

Program length also made
no difference (the dramas were 60 minutes and the documentaries were 30
minutes).

Second screens are here to stay. And, they’re serving up
more content, more apps, and more interactivity every day.

Programmers, developers, and content providers would do well
to learn the eye-tracking lessons of second screen interactivity in order to
maximize both their second screen applications—and the consumer experience.

Here
at FYI, we’re watching everything that’s going on with TV screens, second
screens, and the people who need entertainment data to keep holding the
attention of viewers.

You've heard the groundbreaking eye-tracking data. Just click below and we’ll
schedule a demo of our data for you to have a look at.